(I Thessalonians 1:2 — Phillips Translation)

What do you have to show for it? Your Christianity –your church membership? I knew a church that is providing every person who belongs to that congregation with a membership card — to fit nicely in one’s billfold, signed by the pastor, certifying that the bearer is a member in good standing of such and such a church. The plan is for the church member to carry the card with him wherever he goes along with his driver’s license and service club and secret society membership cards to show that he belongs. It’s a good idea, but I wonder how many members of that congregation have anything else beside that card to show for their connection with Christ?

Think of yourself — what have you to show for it? All the times you’ve been to Sunday school — the hours you’ve spent in church on Sundays — your catechism memorizing and Bible reading — your vows, promises, and good intentions — every gracious influence of godly parents and loving friends? What do you have about you today to show for it?

“Went to church today,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in his diary, “and was not greatly depressed.” Is that the sort of entry the moving finger of time has been writing on your life to trace the record of your religious connections and exercises — “not greatly depressed, not deeply impressed, not radically changed”? Just what do you have to show for it anyway?

When St. Paul wrote his first letter to the Christians at Thessalonica he began by saying that every time he got down on his knees to say his prayers he began by giving thanks to God for them, because they had something to show for their church membership. “We give thanks to God always, for you all,” wrote the Apostle, “making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Apostle is saying: “Every time I think about you, I thank God because you’ve really got something to show for your Christianity you’ve embraced. For we never forget that your faith has meant solid achievement, your love has meant hard work, and the hope that you have in our Lord Jesus Christ means sheer dogged endurance in the life that you now live before God, the Father of us all.” (Translation of I Thessalonians 1:2 — by Phillips — Letters to Young Churches)

And this is just what you and I ought to have to show for our church relationship: work of faith, labor of love, patience of hope.

First of all, we ought to have this to show for it — work of faith. To his great surprise, the first missionary to Europe discovered that he didn’t have to tell other people in Macedonia, as he traveled from city to city, about the success story of the converts down in Thessalonica. Everywhere Paul went people were telling him the story that had run on ahead of the traveler — that famous Thessalonian story of how people had turned from idols to worship the one true God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Their work of faith was the activity inspired by the faith born in their souls. The manner of their outward life had become characteristic of and compatible with the new convictions they had embraced.

Somewhere in one of Phillips Brooks’ sermons there is a description of the birth of a water spout at sea. In the distance the sailor sees the low-hanging cloud suddenly dip toward the surface of the sea — and in response a swirling column of water rises to meet that beckoning finger of cloud. Then the two are one and, in the indivisible whirling movement, sweep onward. It is impossible to sunder cloud and sea or to say where cloud ends and sea begins. So is it with divinity and humanity, the above and the below, when the hand of God reaches down and calls up faith from a human heart — but that mysterious union, wherever it takes place, always sweeps irresistibly onward through the world and there is always that unmistakable activity for all to observe — the work of a person’s life inspired by faith.

Certainly, everyone knows that each person’s work, what one does in the world with his life, his manner of daily living, is characteristic of the faith he holds — is the best expression of what values in that life are supreme. So one shows what he or she most surely believes. There are not many schizophrenics — the hand goes after what the heart desires.

Not long ago, walking home to lunch at a rather brisk pace, for I was late, I met an old Negro gentleman on the sidewalk. In response to my “good-day” as we passed, he said: “How’re you feeling, sir?” “Just fine,” I replied over my shoulder, for I was already past him. “I could tell that, sir,” he said good naturedly, “by the way you walked.”

Yes, the blessing of good health and strength from a gracious God have a way of showing through, if we have them, even in our walk. How much more so ought the greater gift of a living faith to show — by our way of life.

“I would fain be to the Eternal God what a man’s hand is to the man that has it,” said that unknown Christian who wrote the Theological Germanica. Well, if we really have the Christian faith would not something like that be our burning determination — and would it not inevitably make its show in our manner of life?

“What,” cried Richard Baxter, “have we our time and strength for, but to lay both out for God? What is a candle for, but to be burnt?” We ought to have this to show for our Christianity — work of faith.

But more than that, we ought to have this to show for it all — labor of love. Had you ever noticed what it was that called forth St. Paul’s inspired prose poem on Love in I Corinthians 13? Why, surprisingly enough, it was the ugly spectacle of emotional excesses in the Church at Corinth, something like holy-rollerism in the congregation. To correct that, Paul wrote his great chapter, saying in so many words: “If you really have Christian love in your heart then the proof of it will be not, in unintelligible babblings and emotional outbursts of frenzied tears and verbal protestations of affection, but in labors of love — loving deeds for the brotherhood and for your enemies. Love suffereth long and is kind.”

And John, that Apostle of love who has left us that well known exhortation: “Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.” … That same Apostle of love has also said to us very plainly: “Let us put our love, not into words and into talk, but into deeds and make it real.”

Labor of love — ceaseless, arduous toil for the sake of great affection to God and man — this the Christian has to show for his Christianity.

Carlyle once wrote a letter to Emerson warning him against a religion of spiritual aloofness: “Alas, it is easy to screw one’s self up into high and ever higher altitudes of Transcendentalism, and see nothing under one but the everlasting snows of Himalayas, the earth shrinking to a planet, and the indigo firmament sowing itself with daylight stars; easy for you, for me: but whither does it lead? Well, I do believe, for one thing, a man has no right to say to his own generation; turning quite away from it: ‘Be damned!’ It is the whole past and the whole future, this cotton spinning, dollar hunting, canting and shrieking, very generation of ours. Come back into it, I tell you.”

And it is back into our generation that we Christian church men and women must come today, with all the love of God in Christ pulsing in our hearts and coursing uninterruptedly out through the labors of our hands, and giving all the loving lift our aching arms and bent shoulders can give. A Christian ought to have this to show for his Christianity — not just a sensation of brotherly affection, not just kind words about human sympathy and fellowship, but some real labor of love.

And finally, the Christian ought to have this to show — patience of hope. If faith, or one’s articles of belief, produces a work or order of life, characteristic of and compatible with Christian doctrine — righteousness, justice, truth; if love, or one’s deepest affections for God and people, eventuates in loving labors for those beloved; then hope, which is the expectation that God will keep his precious promises to his own, produces a stalwart, unwavering, persevering patience.

In the New Testament patience is no meek, mealy-mouthed virtue. It is no spirit of peace at any price, enduring any evil or wrong without moral protest. New Testament patience is a courageous steadfastness — which keeps on keeping on in loyal Christian discipleship, in spite of all setbacks and discouragements. This patience was the virtue the martyrs displayed as young Perpetua, lead in to the arena to meet a fierce leopard, cried: “This is my coronation day.”

What produces this patience in the Christian: Where does it come from? It is a patience born of a bright and shining hope. In Mazzinni’s account of his comrades in the young Italy movement, he said: “We are often in real want, but we are lighthearted in a way, and smiling, because we believe in the future.” That’s the source of Christian patience — Christian hope.

It is not strange that a Christian should have this to show for his or her religion — a patience of hope — for the Christian’s faith and hope is that God reigns supreme in this world and eternity. God is the God of history. All events are in His hands. The future is in His keeping. In spite of all the evil and strife and defeat of this present time, ultimately the love of God as revealed in the compassionate Christ will be victorious. And so — while love hangs on the scaffold, and good, true hearts are broken by cruel infidelity and ruthless selfishness, and while harsh tragedy is crippling beautiful young life, and while defeat is trampling in the dust, our brightest battle banners, and courage is almost gone — the Christian remains patient, steadfast, holding on — because that is the inevitable outgrowth of the bright hope held in the Christian’s heart.

Rufus Jones said that Baron Von Hugel once told him that “no saint was ever canonized by the Roman Catholic Church unless, with all the other qualifications satisfactory, the person had maintained through good report and evil report, in triumphs and in frustrations, a radiant spirit.”

Work of faith, labor of love, patience of hope — these a Christian should have to show for his Christianity. When the Apostle Paul saw such evidence of God’s grace in the Thessalonians’ lives it made him very happy. He knelt down and thanked God for it. If that is what it did for Paul, can’t you imagine how it must gladden God’s heart when He finds, in your life and mine, some small evidence of His grace — something to show for His care and redeeming love — some work of faith, some labor of love, some patience of hope? Oh, it’s this kind of show of Christianity that rings the bells of heaven — not what we have to show of profits and crops and clothes and cars.

To the namby-pamby church at Laodicea, the Spirit saith: “I know thy works, that thou are neither hot nor cold … I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest ‘I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing’; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked.”

But to the faithful church at Ephesus, the Spirit saith: “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, … And to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

The late Bishop Gore used to give his final charge to candidates on the eve of their ordination in these impressive words: “Tomorrow I shall say unto you, ‘Wilt thou, wilt thou, wilt thou?’ But there will come a day to you when another will say to you, ‘Hast thou, hast thou, hast thou?’”

So, you are a Christian. Well, what do you have to show for it?

 

PASTORAL PRAYER

Most holy and compassionate God, whose dwelling place is the light of the setting suns, and the round ocean, and the living air, and in the mind of man, we thank Thee for every evidence of Thy presence and power, both in the visible creation and in the invisible realities of Thy spiritual kingdom. Especially today we thank Thee for the youth of Thy church — those boys and girls, young men and young women whose lives are being touched by the kindling power of Thy Spirit so they may show forth the glory that is in Christ.

Bless all youth everywhere, we pray Thee, O God. Through the concerned ministries of Thy church, the wholesome fellowship of dedicated young people, and the persistent entreaties of Thy Spirit, draw them to our noble Master, the only legitimate Lord of their lives, our Savior Jesus Christ. Help them to bring every social engagement, every athletic contest, every talent and interest before the throne of His judgment and acknowledge His sovereignty in and through that relationship, encounter, or endowment.

O defend by the shield of Thy Spirit, Lord, all young people from falling for the counterfeit values parroted in the advertisements of a sophisticated, but perverted, adult generation. Open the eyes of their spirits to behold reality in the clear light of Thy eternal truth and guide them safely in all their decisions in the way of life everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who taught us when we pray to say …

PLACES AND DATES PREACHED

High Point, N.C. — 09/18/49

Queens College Religious Emphasis Week, Charlotte, N.C. — 03/14/50;

Concord Presbytery Youth Rally, Lenoir, N.C. — 03/26/50;

First Presbyterian Church, Burlington, N.C. — 03/29/50;

First Presbyterian Church Men’s Dinner, Greensboro, N.C. — 09/20/50;

Randolph Church — 09/24/50

First Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, N.C. — 10/15/50;

High Point, N.C. — WHPE Devotional — 03/09/51;

Union Church, Beroit, MS — 04/09/51;

Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA — 06/10/51;

Flora Macdonald – Presbyterian Youth Conference, Red Springs, N.C. –06/12/51;

Little Church on the Boardwalk, Wrightsville Beach, N.C. — 08/12/51;

Montreat, N.C., Board of Christian Extension Conference — 08/22/51;

Young Adult Conference, Lexington Presbyterian Olivet Church, Staunton, VA — 04/27/52;

First Presbyterian Church, Natchez, MS — 10/30/52;

East Hanover Youth Conference, Hampden Sydney, VA — 06/22/53;

Center College, Danville, KY — 03/01/54;

Presbyterian Youth Breakfast, Wilmington, N.C. — 04/08/54;

Young Adult’s Conference, Montreat, N.C. — 06/24/54;

Confederate Home, Richmond, VA — 06/28/54;

West End Collegiate Church, New York City, N.Y. — 07/17/54;

Men’s Rally, Memphis Presbyterian Evergreen Church, Memphis, TN — 10/03/54

Covenant Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, N.C. — 11/03/54

St. Paul Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX — 03/29/63;

Idlewild Presbyterian Church, Vesper Service — 03/14/65;

Independent Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, AL — 03/18/65

King’s Daughters, Home for Incurables, Memphis, TN — 02/25/66;

Idlewild Evening Circles, Memphis, TN — 11/16/54;

Men of Christ, Blytheville, AR — 01/24/55;

Harvey Browne Memorial Church, St. Matthews, Louisville, KY — 03/11/55;

Men of Church Rally, Oxford, MS — 05/01/55;

Synod’s Youth Conference, Bellhaven College, Jackson, MS — 06/24/55;

Youth Inspirational Work, Myers Park Church, Charlotte, N.C. — 07/15/55;

Men of Church, St. John’s Episcopal, Memphis, TN — 05/09/56

Goodwill Industries Chapel Service, Memphis, TN — 05/11/56;

First Presbyterian Church, Brookhaven, MS –02/12/57;

Mullins Chapel Methodist Church, Memphis, TN — 04/29/57;

First Presbyterian Church, Old Hickory, TN — 10/27/57;

Memphis Baptist Minister’s Association, Bellevue Baptist Church, Memphis, TN — 03/03/58;

Old Stone Presbyterian Church, Lewisburg, W. VA — 11/07/58;

Covenant Presbyterian Church, Tuscaloosa, AL — 02/06/59;

First Presbyterian Church, Freeport, TX — 03/13/59;

Presbyterian Church, Wynne, AR — 05/05/59;

Pendleton Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN — 09/27/59;

Presbyterian Church, Pulaski, TN — 05/26/60;

Waverly Road Presbyterian Church, Kingsport, TN — 09/15/60;

Covenant Presbyterian Church, Austin, TX — 10/09/60;

Orange Presbyterian Church, Elders Breakfast, Orange, TX — 10/12/60;

Lindenwood Christian Church, Memphis, TN — 11/30/60;

Woodlawn Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, AL — 03/09/61;

Presbyterian Church, Earle, AR — 04/13/61;

Presbyterian Church, Dyersburg, TN — 05/05/61;

First Baptist (Lauderdale), Memphis, TN — 02/10/63;

Peter Creek Presbyterian Church, Phelps, KY — 04/26/70;

Shepard Memorial Church, Phelps, KY — 04/26/70;

First Presbyterian Church, Meridian, MS — 10/30/74;

Bethel Presbyterian Church, Olive Branch, MS – 10/24/76;

Donelson Presbyterian Church, Nashville, TN – 11/02/76;

Germantown Presbyterian Church, New Members Dinner, Germantown, TN —  11/17/76;

First Presbyterian Church, Installation of Clyce Hurst, West Memphis, AR, — 01/30/77;

Woodland Presbyterian Church, Men’s Breakfast, Memphis, TN — 04/04/77;

Trinity Presbyterian Church, Installation of John Wilson, Martin, TN —   10/02/77;

Macon Road Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN — 10/16/77;

First Presbyterian Church, Somerville, TN — 11/12/78;

First Presbyterian Church, Byhalia, MS — 08/14/79

First Presbyterian Church, Kennett, MO — 01/25/81;

First Presbyterian Church, Earle, AR — 10/10/82;

Whitehaven Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN — 05/18/86;

First Presbyterian Church, Rosemark, TN — 06/14/87

• Scripture Reference: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 • Secondary Scripture References: n/a • Subject : Christian character, The marks of; 613 • Special Topic: n/a • Series: n/a • Occasion: n/a • First Preached: 9/18/1949 • Last Preached: 6/14/1987 • Rating: 2 • Book/Author References: , Rufus Jones; , Robert Louis Stevenson; , Thomas Carlyle; , Phillips Brooks; Letters to Young Churches, J. B. Phillips